Google Ads have emerged as a powerful tool for educational institutions to enhance their visibility, generate more leads, and ultimately, boost enrolment rates. This article delves into how schools, particularly international schools, can harness the potential of Google Ads to transform their digital marketing strategy and reach their enrolment goals.
Introduction to Google Ads for Schools
Google Ads, an online advertising platform developed by Google, operates on a pay-per-click (PPC) model, allowing advertisers to bid on keywords to display clickable ads in Google’s search results. For schools, Google Ads provide a strategic means to position themselves prominently in the digital space when prospective parents or students are actively searching for educational options.
With the exception of families in China, most potential families start their search for a new school on Google. What makes Google Ads particularly powerful is that it has the power to place your school’s ad in front of families that are actively searching for a school. This intent based advertising approach can be much more targeted than the interruption based advertising style of platforms such as Facebook.
The Power of Google Ads in Digital Marketing for Schools
Traditional methods of school outreach and engagement are gradually being replaced by digital marketing efforts. Today, parents increasingly rely on online platforms to gather information, assess school options, and make informed decisions regarding their child’s education. In this context, Google Ads can play a pivotal role in transforming mere online presence into active engagement and enrolment.
Bridging the Gap Between Schools and Prospective Students
Google Ads offer schools the opportunity to be precisely at the right place at the right time. By displaying ads to users who are actively searching for educational options, schools can deliver compelling messages that highlight their unique selling propositions, respond to user queries, and showcase their offerings effectively.
Harnessing the Power of Google’s Wide Reach
Google, the world’s most widely used search engine, processes over 3.5 billion searches per day. This extensive user base provides an unprecedented opportunity for schools to reach a diverse and expansive audience. By incorporating Google Ads into their marketing strategy, schools can transcend geographical boundaries and tap into a global pool of potential students and parents.
Key Benefits of Google Ads
Google Ads can provide several benefits to schools as part of their marketing strategy:
Increased Website Traffic: A well-optimised Google Ads campaign can increase traffic to a school’s website, a vital source of information for prospective students and parents.
Strategic Positioning: Google Ads allow schools to strategically position themselves when prospective students and parents are actively searching for educational options.
Flexible Budgeting: Regardless of the size of the budget, Google Ads accommodate various budget sizes, making it accessible to both small and large schools. Furthermore, in comparison to traditional school advertising, such as billboards, Google Ads is a very cost effective source of leads.
Data-Driven Insights: Google Ads provide a wealth of data and analytics, giving schools insights into their campaign performance and helping them understand what works and optimise strategies accordingly.
How Schools Can Leverage Google Ads
Every successful campaign starts with a well-thought-out marketing strategy. Understanding your school’s potential families and their demographics, behaviours, and pain points are key to setting up an ad account correctly and crafting compelling ad copy.
To leverage Google Ads effectively, schools must understand the platform’s features and capabilities. The following sections provide a step-by-step guide on how to transform Google advertising into a powerful tool in your school’s digital marketing arsenal.
Organising Campaign Structure and Settings
Campaigns and settings form the foundation of a school’s Google Ads strategy. The key lies in proper setup – maximising the return on investment and reaching the right audience. Schools should separate their campaigns for Search, Display and Performance Max, keep their account organised with multiple campaigns, and bid on relevant, long-tailed terms related to their institution.
“When setting up a Search Campaign, remember to turn off the display network enhancement as this will eat up your budget with low quality ads and clicks. Instead create a separate Display Campaign or Display Remarketing Campaign.”
It is always a good idea to separate campaigns by geographic area. A family relocating to your area from Hong Kong, will likely require different messaging (or even language), to a family relocating from the USA. Separating campaigns in this way allows for greater control over your ads, and allows you better assess the performance of individual locations.
Key Takeaways
- Separate Campaigns: Schools should have separate campaigns for Search and Display to prevent their budget from being entirely consumed by clicks from the Display network, which may yield lower-quality traffic.
- Organised Account Structure: An organised Google Ads account with multiple campaigns ensures that ads match relevant keywords, resulting in higher Quality Scores (QS), improved ad rankings, and lower costs per click.
- Branded Campaigns: Schools should bid on their name and any brand-specific terms. These bottom of funnel keywords often have the lowest cost per click and the highest conversion rates.
- Non-Branded Campaigns:Schools can increase their visibility by targeting top and mid funnel keywords with non-branded campaigns.
Mastering Ad Group Strategy
Schools should create sufficient Ad Groups to make their ads more targeted and cost-effective. Competitive bid levels should also be maintained to ensure ads rank within the top results.
Organising your ad groups around a single theme, allows you to craft more relevant copy and align the messaging on the landing page to the searcher’s original intent. A single campaign for a school may be broken down into the following single theme ad groups, or STAGS each containing 5-10 relevant keywords:
- Top international schools in [City]
- British Schools in [City]
- Primary/Elementary Schools in [City]
- IB Curriculum Schools in [City]
Key Takeaways
- Sufficient Ad Groups: If a school has numerous different keywords within one Ad Group, it should create more Ad Groups to ensure ads are more relevant to the keywords, improving QS and reducing cost-per-click (CPC).
- Competitive Bid Levels: Schools should aim to rank their ads within the top results to strike a balance between visibility in search results and a reasonable CPC.
Harnessing the Power of Keyword Optimisation
Keywords are the bread and butter in the Google Ads world. Schools should use a variety of exact and phrase keywords, but be cautious of broad match keywords, as they can drain the budget on irrelevant searches. Instead, schools should embrace negative keywords to protect their ads from irrelevant searches.
“Sometimes even phrase match keywords can show ads on irrelevant searches. Optimise your school’s ad account by regularly visiting the search terms report and excluding searches with the wrong intent”
Key Takeaways
- Variety in Keyword Matching: Schools should use both exact and phrase keywords to gain better visibility and control over matching their keywords to user searches.
- Use of Negative Keywords: Negative keywords prevent ads from being displayed for irrelevant searches. Regularly reviewing the search terms report and adding new negative keywords can significantly save resources.
Don’t Forget to Test, Test, Test.
Creating effective ads requires a blend of creativity and strategy. Schools should always have at least two ads per ad group for split testing and experiment with different ad copies to see what works best. Ads should emphasise the unique benefits and strengths of the school to make them more appealing to prospective families.
Quickly split-test an ad by duplicating an existing ad using Google’s copy and paste feature, then change any ad details you wish and run the ads alongside each other to determine the best performing ad. Common variables that schools may want to test are:
- Headlines
- Descriptions
- Images
- Landing Page Copy
- Ad Extensions
It is important not to change too many variables at once, or you may not be able to tell why one ad is performing better than another.
Key Takeaways
- Split-Testing: Schools should create at least two ads per ad group for split-testing. This can improve click-through rates (CTR) and QS.
- Highlighting Benefits and Unique Selling Propositions (USPs): Ads should emphasise the school’s unique benefits and strengths to make them more appealing to prospective families.
- Keyword Relevance: Ads should be highly relevant to the keywords, ideally including the keyword in the ad headline. This can increase CTR and QS.
The Future of Google Ads in School Marketing
Managing a successful Google Ads campaign requires strategic planning, diligent monitoring, and continual optimisation. While it might seem daunting at first, the potential payoff is enormous. With each click potentially being a future student, and each ad sparking a meaningful educational journey, schools can take control of their paid advertising and utilise Google Ads to its fullest. After all, the success of a school and the future of countless students could be just a well-placed keyword away.
Got 15 Minutes to Spare?
I hope this article provided you with some insight into what goes into a successful Google Ads campaign. If you need help managing your school’s ad campaigns, you could leverage my years of experience in running successful school ad campaigns. Drop me a message and schedule a 15 minute, no obligation chat today.